Kenneth Rijock

Saturday, January 10, 2015

Richard Chichakli, who filed a Notice of Appeal* from his criminal conviction, may want to associate himself with a more knowledgeable group of jailhouse lawyers, for his appeal is in jeopardy for purely procedural reasons. The Clerk of the Second Circuit of Appeals ordered, on January 5, 2015, that Chichakli's appeal will be dismissed on January 20th, if a Notice of Representation and Acknowledgement is not filed by that date. Federal Appellate Rule 12 requires that counsel file one within 14 days of the filing of the appeal, and this has not been done.

Chichakli's stand-by counsel for the trial, court-appointed, filed the notice of appeal, but it appears that he is not the attorney of record for the appeal. Chichakli subsequently asked the 2nd Circuit to appoint him counsel, but the Clerk has demanded that he notify trial counsel that he represents the appellate. It is my understanding that there is no constitutional right to stand-by counsel, if one chooses to represent himself on appeal. Will the Court ignore or deny his request ?

All this should have been straightened out by Chichakli early on, and whomever is ghost-writing his pleadings should have anticipated that this issue would come up; read the rules, gentlemen. Remember, as we are taught in civil procedure class, more cases are won or lost, due to procedural issues, than on substantive law.